A legal website used by attorneys to privately discuss case law is shutting down after 10 years…
Read more Read more

Like all real Americans, I am an entrepreneurial, small-business job-creator type, so when I learned that the NSA was collecting immense amounts of data from nearly every major tech company on the planet, my first thought was: How can I make a buck off of this?

Positive response on Twitter led me to add more products: a mug, an iPhone case, and a black hoodie. I set up a Zazzle store—PRISMMerchandise—and over the course of Friday sold two tees and two mugs, for a grand total of seven dollars. I was in business.

Until Uncle Sam stepped in.

Late last night I received this email (as the NSA likely knows):

Dear PRISMMerchandise,

Thank you for your interest in Zazzle.com, and thank you for publishing products on Zazzle.

Unfortunately, it appears that your product, PRISM NSA T-Shirt - #Rare PRISM Shirt SPIES, contains content that is in conflict with one or more of our acceptable content guidelines.

We will be removing this product from the Zazzle Marketplace shortly.

Please help us make our content approval process better by taking this short survey.

The details of the product being removed are listed below:

Product Title: PRISM NSA T-Shirt - #Rare PRISM Shirt SPIES

Product Type: zazzle_shirt

Product ID: 235336285725181211

Result: Not Approved

Policy Notes: Design contains an image or text that may infringe on intellectual property rights. We have been contacted by the intellectual property right holder and we will be removing your product from Zazzle’s Marketplace due to infringement claims.

If you have any questions or concerns about the review of your product, please email us at content_review@zazzle.com and we'll be happy to provide you with additional support.

Best Regards,

Content Review Team Zazzle Inc.

I received the same notice for PRISMMerchandise's other three products as well.

Theoretically, the logo is the work of the U.S. government, which has not officially acknowledged the PRISM program.

But it had to have been the feds. No one else has any claim to the logo. (While in most circumstances, U.S. government works aren't protected by copyright laws, federal law bans "the manufacture, sale or possession of items bearing the insignia of federal offices"—not that this has stopped other Zazzle shop owners.)

The FBI is hopping mad at Wikipedia! Apparently they've threatened Wikipedia with legal action …
Read more Read more

I've emailed Zazzle's "content review team" to find out who contacted it claiming to be the rights-holder of the PRISM logo, and will update the post when I hear back. Until then, you will have to do your own screen-printing.